Billy’s Case Files
by Ermintrude
See part one for disclaimers
Part 21
Welcome to America Mr. Brand October 21, 1985
Billy sat at his desk and reviewed the list of visiting dignitaries. He hated this sort of thing. His people were supposed to be out there catching the bad guys—not showing a bunch of dignitaries around DC. OK, so many of these dignitaries were from other intelligence agencies throughout the world—but still, it rankled in these times of budget cuts and cost oversights.
He sighed, and yielded to the inevitable. He started assigning agents to individuals and groups of dignitaries. Hopefully the KGB and rest of the ‘enemy’ agencies would hold off for the next few days—otherwise there would be some dignitaries sans escorts—and that would be bad. Billy knew this was one of the exigencies of bureaucratic favors. If you wanted your people treated well abroad—you had to treat their people well when they came over here. He knew even he would have to greet and show around a few people—administrator to administrator. They’d do lunch and swap stories—maybe he’d actually pick up a few pointers—but he doubted it.
He checked the last request—James Brand—an actuary in MI-6’s pensions department. He shook his head. Yes, the man deserved the same treatment that the others did—but an accountant? He did have security clearance—but he was no agent. So who could Billy get to show this guy around? Wait—not an agent—he’d get Scarecrow to ask Amanda to show the guy around. He sounded harmless enough. Not at all like that French attaché Amanda had nicknamed ‘the grabber’. Billy felt bad about that one. The guy was supposedly older and married—but apparently he thought as he was not at home he had free license to ‘play’. And he’d tried his charms on Amanda King. Repeatedly. To Mrs. King’s great annoyance. She rarely complained—but this time it sounded entirely justified. She related to Lee she had ended up with a couple of bruises in delicate spots. She hadn’t had to resort to actual violence—but it had been a near thing. Times were different nowadays. Maybe 10 years ago a visiting dignitary could expect a ‘good time’ from his female escort—goodness knows Francine had ‘entertained’ many a visiting dignitary. But it had always been a voluntary thing—the woman had the right to refuse any ‘extra’ attentions beyond the polite tour and a meal.
So he’d get Scarecrow to ask his partner to show Brand around DC, and hopefully he’d be dull as a stick. Amanda was a good person, and so she would do her best to be gracious and hospitable. Billy didn’t need another international incident, so he fervently prayed this Brand was just as boring and mundane as he sounded.
Sour Grapes October 28, 1985
This case of the dead judge, and the two others was baffling. Heroin in their systems—at a purity guaranteed to kill. Someone was smuggling heroin into the US using vintage wines. Seemed a shame to waste good vintage wine that way. Lee and Amanda had traced the missing case to a charity auction—and once again Amanda’s charity skills had stood the Agency in good stead. She had been able to get the donor list while her partner was shown around by the barracuda in charge. At least that’s what Lee had called her after being forced to part with a generous charity donation. The man could afford it—and it would make a nice deduction on his taxes.
So Amanda would go in to the auction and bid on the tainted wine—while he, Lee and Francine would stake out the crowd and see who bid against her. Hopefully they’d then catch the big mastermind behind the scheme. They had the sommelier—but he was small potatoes compared to the big man in charge. Hopefully it would end well—there had been a couple murder attempts on Lee and Amanda posing as wealthy wine connoisseurs. And therefore Billy had decided to personally be present to help nab Mr. Big. That way he could help with the capture without reassigning another agent. He and Francine could still do field work occasionally—and it was useful in cases like this. He had impersonated an African dignitary during the Byron Jordan case—and it had turned out well. But that was more of a case of being the only person for the job on short notice. Before that he’d gone after Gordon Redding when Amanda’s duplicate had managed to kidnap Lee. He and Francine had been available—and so they left—no time to call anyone else in.
Yes, being field ready was an asset that he prided himself on. And having Francine was helpful, too. Hopefully when she took over after he retired, she’d do the same thing. It helped give perspective to the lives of your people to occasionally go out into the trenches yourself.
Utopia Now November 4, 1985
Billy had a strong feeling that something was not right. Lee had missed his 4:30 check-in, and then someone had phoned to verify their covers. If things were going well—that should have not happened. If he had known how unstable Sacker was before he sent Lee and Amanda out there to track down his New Utopia—he’d have changed the game plan.
But it was too late for that—so he had to make plans for a possible rescue. Leprechaun was out there with Sacker—and had stopped reporting. Damn that man—why did these agents think they knew better than he did? Why were they insubordinate so often? Billy had been in the field for years—and doing worse jobs than most of these young hot shots ever did.
He thought back to the many times he’d gone in on an assignment as a janitor or waiter or—worst of all—garbage collector. That had been a long boring assignment over a hot summer in the South. Still, being black limited the roles he could fill and stay credible. And—as Harry had often emphasized—being black in a servile role made him virtually invisible—which was a great asset in the intelligence business. He knew he had been very lucky to be hired by Harry and he knew Harry appreciated his intelligence, skills and education. And so Billy had swallowed his pride and made the most of his opportunities. And all that had gotten him to where he was now. A highly paid—in terms of the civil service—administrator in charge of a group of fine people.
So Billy again swallowed his pride, and planned to send in a team to possibly rescue Lee and Amanda. They depended on him and he wasn’t going to let them down. They were his best team, and he owed it to them to rectify and mistakes they had made. Hopefully it would turn out well.
After Utopia Now November 4, 1985
‘Something happened out there in that swamp. I don’t know what—but something happened.’ Billy sat at his desk after reading the debriefings from Scarecrow and his partner the night before. He had been present as an observer during their debriefings. It had been somewhat routine—they had described their adventures. But both their demeanors had changed when each came to the part where they ran for their lives into the swamp. Chained together. That was unusual. Scarecrow had gotten somewhat clinical in his description. They had run until after nightfall. They had found dry land and built a small fire. Then somehow Sacker’s men had seen something, and fired into the swamp. They had put out the fire, ducked, and when the gunfire had stopped, they bedded down for the night. It all sounded plausible.
Amanda’s description had been nearly identical. Running into the swamp chained together—finding dry land after nightfall—building a small fire—Sacker’s men firing into the swamp—bedding down huddled together for the night. She had sounded shy and her eyes had been downcast while she related her story. Yes, definitely—something had happened that night.
Once they came to the next day—each returned to their normal self. They related how they had found the fence bordering the underground White House, and how things had wrapped up.
Billy knew better than to assume there had been any sexual encounter. Mrs. King just wasn’t that type, and Scarecrow knew better than to jeopardize the both of them by forgetting himself in such a dangerous situation. But something had happened.
Billy was not naïve—he understood that details were always left out of debriefings. By now Mrs. King was experienced enough to know how the drill went. They probably didn’t have to discuss it at all—those two were so much in synch by now that they would give stories that were identical in their omissions. But what had they omitted? What had happened on that hillock in the middle of that swamp? They had been tired, hungry—certainly they were cold. They had admitted they huddled together for warmth. But there was something more—Billy knew it in his bones. They had not been uncomfortable with each other—quite the opposite. They exhibited their usual close partnership he had seen develop over the past two years. But there seemed to be something more. Billy would keep an eye out to see how they interacted in the next few weeks. Would anything change? He was extremely interested to see what would happen.
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